Election Reform

It is too late to do it now, but after this election, the Congress should take up a bill for comprehensive election reform for federal office elections. I hope that this election on November 4th will be without controversy. I would be pleasantly surprised. If the margin of victory is wide, then the underlying problems will be less visible. However make no mistake about it, the current system which is administered differently in each state and county is fraught with problems and open to mischief.

Early voting has already begun, and problems are already surfacing. As reported by CNN in Broward County, Florida yesterday, the lines were three hours long at one polling site where the two machines that printed ballots were broken for 45 minutes. A candidate for a judgeship was not on the ballot and someone else's name was put on it instead. I am afraid that this is just the tip of the iceberg of voting problems. It is eight years after the hanging chad issues of 2000, and we are still having issues about voter registrations, ballots, machines, no paper trails, purging voters from voter rolls, etc. This is disgraceful in a country that is supposed to be the beacon of democracy. Instead we look more like a third world country.

Recent allegations by Republicans about voter fraud by ACORN, the community activist group that registered over a million new voters, are headlines in the news. While under the radar are systematic efforts to purge voter rolls using tactics like purging names of anyone whose home was foreclosed and people with similar names as convicted criminals on the basis that these are aliases. The use of voting machines without paper trails or receipts only adds to the suspicion of foul play. Then there are the voter suppression efforts like telling certain people that the Democrats vote on Wednesday and the Republicans vote on Tuesday; or telling college students that if they register to vote, then their parents can not longer claim them as a dependent on their taxes. These are all problems that could be fixed. Certainly the technical problems could be prevented, and handled well in advance of an election so as not to taint the outcome.

Democracy depends on confidence of the voters that their vote counts, that all votes are counted, and that the candidates who get the most votes are the actual winners who are sworn into office. In a real democracy, there is no room for foul play, manipulation of the voting process, or intimidation of citizens who have a right to cast their vote. These are simple standards and they are fundamental to our system of government by the people, for the people. While I generally think that the federal government should not interfere with local elections which should be run by local officials, I believe federal elections are different. Whomever is elected to Congress and to be President and Vice-President will make a difference to everyone of us on the full range of national issues. Election rules for these federal offices should establish a national standard with minimum requirements for conducting these important elections in a fair and honest way. I would hope that both parties could agree on this fundamental concept. That would be putting America First.

Palin in the White House

Sarah Palin did her gig on Saturday Night Live this weekend. Some might call her a good sport while others will look at this and shake their head. If you liked her skit, perhaps you might also like this link: http://www.palinaspresident.us/
See what you can find in the Oval Office using your mouse to move the cursor over items in the office and the windows. This link is also available at the quick links section of the blog. Post a comment and let us know what ya think!

Gen Powell endorses Obama

This morning on Meet The Press, former Secretary of State and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Colin Powell announced his endorsement of Barack Obama. Among his reasons he cited the following: He viewed Barack Obama as a transformational figure who was the right person to lead the country at this time. He pointed to Obama's ability to inspire others both here at home and around the world. He also cited Obama's steady temperament and sound approach to problems as evidenced by his conduct during this financial crisis. In contrast, he characterized John McCain as being erratic and not as prepared to deal with the economy as Obama. Although he was quick to praise John McCain personally and cite their long friendship over 25 years, Powell was most critical of the Republican party and the McCain campaign strategy. He characterized the party as being narrow and non-inclusive. As for McCain's campaign,exhibit number one, the negative William Ayers campaign, Robo Calls associating Barack with terrorists, and spreading false claims about Barack being a Muslim. Powell even told a heart wrenching story about a young Muslim who died as a soldier for the American Army to further make the point that Republicans shouldn't be demonizing Muslims generally. Powell also stated very clearly that Sarah Palin was not prepared to be the Vice President. He also referenced the selection of Palin as evidence of less than sound judgement by McCain. I couldn't agree more. The recent Tina Fey skits on Saturday Night Live, while very funny, sadly speak the truth.

While partisan Republicans will discount Powell's endorsement as one black man supporting another, this will simply be another attempt to distort the truth and deflect attention from the real reasons for Powell's endorsement. When asked this question, Powell correctly pointed out that if Barack Obama is elected president it will be an historic event about which all Americans can be proud. We will find out in a few more weeks.

Who Won The Third and Final Debate?

Cast your vote at America First for Obama or McCain. The poll is now open.

Victory Bonds

With another tough day on Wall Street and another likely tomorrow if the Asian markets are an indication, perhaps the candidates might want to think about a program from the past: Victory Bonds. These are the bonds that were bought by average citizens to help finance World War II. A similar program now would help citizens save and invest for their retirement, but also help finance many of the imperatives necessary to put our country back on track while we weather the financial crisis.

Since George Bush initiated his pre-emptive wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the funding has been all done outside of the budget. When combined with the Bush tax breaks and other increases in spending, the net result is another big deficit. As reported today in the New York Times the deficit for the fiscal year that ended on September 30th was $455 Billion. This is 3.2% of our Gross Domestic Product, and is up from 1.2% last year. What this means is that we have been living as a nation beyond our means. As I have mentioned before in this blog, this is irresponsible, unfair to future generations, and now unsustainable in the current global economy. What this also means is that both candidates are promising agendas that they can not deliver. They can't cut taxes, deliver all the current government services, and invest programs for the future.

That's where a 21st century "Victory Bond" program could be the key to the future. The silver lining in the current financial crisis is that Treasury bonds are costing the government less because people and international investors are taking money out of the stock market and putting it into US Treasury bonds because they feel that they are still safe. If the Treasury had a 21st century equivalent, perhaps "Freedom Bonds," we could finance programs for energy independence, rebuilding infrastructure like roads, bridges and the electrical grids, and also invest in education, health care, and jobs retraining. These bonds could also be "tax free" bonds so that ordinary citizens would be able to save for their retirement while investing in the country. Tune into the debate tonight to see if they can figure this out. That would be putting America First.

Fire The Campaign

This was the advice of arch-conservative, William Kristol, in a NY Times column that he writes on a weekly basis. You know..... that liberal NY Times that has given one of the most influential Republican mouthpieces a weekly platform? Anyway, "Fire The Campaign" was Kristol's solution for John McCain to win the election only three weeks away. In one sense, I agree with him for John McCain's sake, but it is likely too little and too late.

How the candidates run their campaigns is also the most likely indicator of their competence to govern. From the beginning, John McCain has been on a roller coaster. He hand picked known Republican operatives, mostly lobbyists or former lobbyists, and put them in key positions. He had to fire some or push them behind the scenes because they were either outright incompetent or had a conflict of interest with their lobbying gigs: Phil Graham, Charlie Black, and Carley Fiorina just to name a few. The ones that he still has running his campaign are only demonstrating their utter incompetence at running a large organization. They also demonstrate their total lack of any deceny and principles as they orchestrate the innuendos and false attacks against Barack Obama. Contrast this with the Obama campaign which has been a model campaign from the start. They amazed everyone by beating the well organized and well financed Clinton machine. Even William Kristol admits that McCain's campaign "is totally overmatched by Obama's. The Obama team is well organized, flush with resources and the candidate and the campaign are in sync." I couldn't have said it better. But what this all goes to show is that Obama has demonstrated the capacity to lead and manage a complex organization, while John McCain has only demonstrated incompetence. Who do you want running the country?

Kristol goes on to throw everything but the kitchen sink into his argument to "Fire the Campaign." He blames the media, which in my opinion has been very easy on both McCain and Sarah Palain, but this is a standard Republican tactic. He asserts that McCain isn't Bush, but McCain now fully embraces all of Bush's policies: tax cuts for the wealthy, deregulated health care, and an bellicose foreign policy. He also points to McCain' readiness to be Commander-in-Chief which may be true if you like the ultra conservative, neocon policies like pre-emptive war, no diplomacy, trash the UN, use military force to solve every international problem. The one thing that Kristol doesn't claim for the demise of the McCain campaign are these failed policy positions which got us into the mess we are in now. Perhaps Kristol should look in the mirror because it was Kristol and his peers who masterminded the same policies that John McCain has been forced to run on by the lunatic right wing. Then they topped it off by foisting a totally unqualified running mate on him: Sarah Palin. Having her and her husband anywhere near the seat of government is a very scary proposition. Now they are not so happy that this isn't working. Guess what? it's the policies stupid!

Obama is the best chance for America right now. It is becoming clearer to thinking Americans who objectively look at the policies and his demonstrated capacity for pure leadership and sound judgement. As someone who has voted many times for Republican presidential candidates in the past, I say we can no longer afford their self-serving and destructive policies. I will go one better than William Kristol: "Fire The Campaign and His Candidates!" You will get the opportunity to do that on November 4th. Mark your calendar. It is now time to put America First and elect Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

The Return of Voodoo Economics

"Voodoo Economics" was the term coined by George H. Bush when he was running in the Republican primary against Ronald Reagan. The term captured the idea that big tax reductions, deregulation, increased defense spending, and run away deficits makes no sense. If we didn't believe it then, we certainly have the proof now. We saw the resurgence of these policies over the last eight years under Geroge W. Bush. Rather than shift to sounder economic policies, John McCain wants to continue more of the same. What is his prescription for America's economic ills? Continuing the Bush tax cuts which are mostly for the wealthy; supposedly cut spending, but not defense spending; and a bizarre proposal to buy mortgages in default at face value only to turn around and lower the balance and interest rate for selected homeowners. None of these policies will have the intended effect.

First, continuing the Bush tax cuts simply rewards the most affluent while increasing the deficits. Without this revenue, we will simply need to continue to borrow money from China, Japan, and the Middle East to finance our debt. The first George Bush was right: this voodoo economics! We can no longer afford to borrow from abroad to finance our government operations. Common sense would tell you that you need to pay it back at some point. We will either pass this massive debt along to the next generation, or devalue the dollar more by printing money in the basement of the Treasury to pay it back. Neither is good choice for America, and frankly passing the buck to the next generation is immoral.

Second, he says that he will cut spending, but not defense spending. If you are going to cut the budget in any meaningful way, you need to cut defense. You will also need to deal with entitlement payments like Social Security, but more importantly Medicare. Neither candidate talks about this in any meaningful way. They simply make general assertions about cutting programs that don't work. What programs? How much? Perhaps we can get some answers in the next debate, but I wouldn't bet on it. The sad truth is that every spending category has its own special interests and congressional sponsors. It would be great if either of these candidates could deliver on spending cuts if elected, but not likely. Moreover, we need to make more investments in infrastructure, education, and energy. Where will they get the money for these imperatives? (I have an answer, but that's for tomorrow's post. Be sure to check it out.)

Third, the proposal to buy up and renegotiate mortgages from homes in foreclosure simply makes no sense. Why should taxpayers bail out irresponsible banks and people who entered into contractual arrangements that they all knew they shouldn't make? What about the vast majority of all homeowners who are making their payments or who saved the money and paid it off? Do they get a windfall bonus check from the government for being responsible citizens?

I have been hard on the McCain-Palin team over the last week, especially for their unrepentant negative personal attacks on Barack Obama. Even if you disagree with me that this was an orchestrated campaign exceeding the bounds of decency, I hope you take a real good look at the policies that John McCain is offering. Not only doesn't his economic policy make sense, but neither does his proposal on health care or his foreign policy. The idea that the Republican candidate will be a proponent for change away from the Republican policies of the last quarter century or more is simply preposterous on its face. To borrow the concept from George H. Bush, it is more than just voodoo economics, it is just voodoo (do I dare say doodoo?). Don't be taken under the spell, think about America First.

Sunday Morning Spin

This is a special Sunday post. Having watched the Sunday morning political talk shows today, I am still flabbergasted by the pundits and media that simply tip toe around the truth: the Republicans led by John McCain and Sarah Palin have been running a vicious smear campaign against Barack Obama. They are playng the race card and appealing to our inner daemons to pull out a victory in November. They are doing all this while the country is in the middle of a financial crisis largely triggered by failed Republican strategies.

Following a week of raucous rallies where McCain and Palin have been interrupted with shouts of "terrorists," "kill him," and "off with his head," these rallies and the race card were the topics of the morning political shows. Predictably the Republican spokespeople sang the chorus from their daily talking points to lament that both sides were making attacks and they regretted this type of discourse. Making sure that they were fair, the mainstream media hosts made a reference to various things that were said by the Democrats in an attempt to be fair. But the truth of the matter is that there is no moral equivalence. While the Republicans might legitimately question Barack Obama's prior associations, including William Ayers, they are not doing this to simply question his judgement. This is an orchestrated campaign to link Barack Obama to terrorists, insinuate by association that he condones terrorism, and by such association supports the Muslim fundamentalist terrorists. One of the recent hires of the McCain Campaign to "handle" Sarah Palin is the same Bush political operative who masterminded the South Carolina whisper campaign by Bush in the 2000 election against John McCain. They insinuated that McCain's adopted daughter was in fact a black child that he fathered out of wed lock. You would think John McCain would never speak with a guy like this, but instead he hires him to work for his campaign! How outrageous. This speaks to John McCain's real character more than any words he could utter about honor, integrity, and "Country First"!

Questioning John McCain's gross lack of judgement to influence government regulators for the benefit of the convicted felon and former bank executive, Charles Keating, is a fact for which he was censured and is relevant to the current financial mess. Questioning Barak Obama's judgement for serving with Ayers on the board of a Chicago charity fund is of minor consequence. Obama did not select Ayers, and Ayers, who was never convicted of any terrorism activities, is now a respected education professor at the University of Chicago. Furthermore when Ayers was allegedly plotting terrorist acts, Barack Obama was only eight years old! Ayers made a $200 political contribution to Obama's Illinois Senate re-election campaign in 2001. Compare this to Charles Keating who either made personal contributions or influenced his employees to make over $112,000 to the various Arizona political campaigns of John McCain. Out of the five lawmakers now known as the "Keating Five," Senator John McCain took the most contributions. These are the facts, so you decide whose judgment is questionable. You decide who is really putting America First.

Its about time

Its about time that John McCain finally asserted himself to tone down the unwarranted personal attacks on Senator Barack Obama. While campaigning in Lakeville, Minnesota on Friday, John McCain was asked a question by an older woman who read about Barack Obama being an "Arab." How sad. It is sad that a poor old woman would be mislead to believe that Barack Obama is an Arab and someone un-American.

For several weeks now, as predicted in this blog, the McCain Campaign has been openly attacking Obama as associating with domestic terrorists and painting the picture of a scary radical, "not one of us" candidate. These open attacks were initially led by Sarah Palin at rallies of Republican right wing supporters chanting "terrorist" and "kill him," echoed 24 x 7 by right wing hate mongers like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh on radio and FOX news, and a carefully orchestrated Internet whisper campaign of outright lies. Terrorists? These nuts are the real terrorists. They should look in the mirror. It is disgusting. Even Cindy McCain is now complicit in lying about Obama's record. I was shocked and surprised when John McCain defended Barack to the woman who asked him the question. He praised Barack as a decent man and urged civility. Where the hell has McCain been for the last few weeks? He has definitely condoned this distasteful rhetoric and promoted it through his running mate and surrogates. Now finally he tried to put the lid on it. Perhaps he knew it was getting out of hand or did the Secret Service tell him to back off? Maybe he was he finally coming to the realization that if he looses the election, he would be ostracized by most of his Senate colleagues for his unbecoming behavior. Whatever the reason, it is about time John McCain spoke up to put the lid on this.

At the next debate, John McCain should take just a few minutes and set the record straight. The guy who wants to be know for his "straight talk" should apologize to Barack and tell America that despite their policy differences, Barack is not an Arab, not a terrorist, and not a pervert. He is a respectable member of the United States Senate. McCain would do more for his campaign by setting the record straight for older voters and less informed citizens who don't read the "liberal mainstream media" but rely on FOX News and the trash talking radio kooks. Uncommitted voters would have more respect for McCain if he did this. Voters would be able make their decision on policies instead of this crap. It was McCain who offered the hope of having a "clean" race with Obama when Reverend Wright dominated the news this Spring. Now McCain could in fact challenge his opponent to spend the remaining time before the election on real issues and real policies. They could both take the high road and marginalize the un-American nuts. Perhaps the candidates could finally agree on something that would put America First.

Bizarre Policies

On a day when the news is dominated by another free fall of the Dow (which is now as low as it was in 1995) policy prescriptions by both the Bush administration and the McCain campaign border on the bizarre.

Starting with McCain's idea to buy mortgages at face value from banks and then renegotiate them at a lower principle balance and interest rate is nothing short of bizarre. This is especially bizarre coming from the candidate who rails against wasteful government spending, earmarks, and regulation. To begin with, these are private contracts between the mortgagor and mortgagee who agreed to the original terms. Second, most of these mortgages are now pooled into securities, so the investors who own them also have an interest how these are negotiated; however most bizarre is why the taxpayer should pay the banks face value and then turn around and take a certain loss with no chance of recovery! There are lots of responsible taxpayers who are currently making their payments or people who were fortunate enough not to have a mortgage or home equity loan at all. All homeowners, regardless of how their home is financed, have suffered a loss of the value of our homes. Why should they not get some windfall as well? Couple this with the fact that the Congress has already incorporated homeowner relief in the recent emergency rescue bill which has some safeguards for the taxpayer and what you get is simply a blatant attempt by McCain to buy votes using our money. It demonstrates his total lack of understanding of the financial markets, the free enterprise system, and any responsible federal budget considerations.

Also in today's news (http://www.nytimes.com) was a report from American intelligence agencies that Afghanistan is in a "downward spiral" and that they doubt the ability of the Karzai government to deal with it. The US Commander, GEN McKiernan has been requesting additional troops, but since all of our available ground forces are tied up in Iraq, even the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has lamented the fact that we have none to send. Defense Secretary Gates has been begging our reluctant NATO allies to contribute more troops. However,other than Britain, mostly they have reluctantly contributed to the effort, and even then, they put restrictions on how their troops could be used. So the Bush administration is sending their point man, LTG Douglas Lute, to see what should be done. How bizarre! First, we have a field commander on the ground, GEN McKiernan, who only as late as last week was in Washington to report to the Commander in Chief himself, Mr. Bush. Second, we have a new CENTCOM Commander, GEN David Petraus who is credited with turning around the situation in IRAQ. Although he certainly did what he needed to do to quell the violence in IRAQ, the primary reason for the turnaround was not the Surge, but the Sunni Awaking (FYI, the US government is paying their militia members $300 per month basically not to fight while Iraq itself socks its money away in the bank). Since Afghanistan now is part of his area of responsibility, wouldn't it make sense for him to figure out what needs to be done? What makes sense is to eliminate LTG Lute's unnecessary position and let the commanders do their job! So much for listening to the commanders on the ground.

Unfortunately much of the reason for the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan can be explained by the lack of attention from the administration after they decided to pull resources from there to attack IRAQ in 2003. This fact has been pointed out by Mr. Obama who has been calling for more troops to support the commander on the ground. Johnny "come lately" McCain is now also calling for more troops. However, if he might have learned anything from his Vietnam experience it would have been that insurgencies can only be "won" by winning the "hearts and minds" of the population. Only when the population is on your side will they deny resources to the insurgents and provide the government forces with actionable intelligence. Unfortunately because we have not had adequate troops, they have been over relying on air strikes which have been killing more civilians than Taliban. Net result: We have alienated the population and Karzai is more like the mayor of Kabul than the leader of his country. Meanwhile the Taliban have been resurgent and the narcotics trade is the primary staple of the economy. Can this deteriorating narco-state be turn around? Perhaps. Will it take more troops? Maybe, but more likely it will take a reconstruction effort. Building schools and clinics might be a good idea, but they need to be built locally and provide jobs, and built to local construction standards. We don't need to outsource to Hailbourton and build western style buildings where there is no rural electricity or sewer service. They need simple buildings designed and built locally so that they people have a vested interest. The government might hire Greg Mortenson who is building schools on his own account in Pakistan rather than Dick Cheney's pals at KBR.

Now to end on a more positive note, the US Treasury also announced today that they may actually take an ownership position in some banks. Perhaps they have been reading this blog. In several recent posts, the editor has suggested that the Treasury make direct investments in banks to shore up their balance sheets and get preferred stock in exchange for the taxpayer. This will not only provide needed capital that will be more useful in the current crisis to unfreeze the credit markets, but also gives the taxpayer a priority security interest in the entire bank. A preferred stock investment gives us taxpayers a proportional interest in both the good assets as well as the bad assets held by the institution. They might further consider forming a holding company to take over insolvent institutions until they can find a buyer. These two actions together will do more to restore confidence in the system.It also protects the taxpayers more than some reverse auction mechanism for the Treasury to purchase non-performing securities. So I for one hope that they are seeing the benefits of a temporary partial nationalization of the banking system through stock ownership. They might as well do it now rather than suffer the drip, drip, drip, of ineffective solutions. As bizarre as this policy might seem, it just might be putting America First!

Gross Lack of Judgement

The continued antics of the McCain campaign to assassinate the character of Barack Obama by making charges of collusion between Obama and former radical William Ayers simply demonstrates the gross lack of judgement of John McCain and his totally unqualified running mate, Sarah Palin. The line was crossed at several recent rallies in Florida where a sheriff in uniform opened the event referring to Senator Obama as "Barack Husein Obama" followed by Palin using inflammatory rhetoric inciting the crowd to chant "terrorist" and "kill him." The sheriff is now being investigated for using his office to influence a political election, but even more disheartening, no despicable, is the knowledge that a law enforcement officer is participating in activities to incite a riot. This is illegal and a violation of federal law. I hope this sheriff will get some time to contemplate his actions sitting in his own jail cell. While all these smear tactics are being used,the country is embroiled in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. McCain and Palin don't have a clue.

What all this really demonstrates is the total lack of judgement and character of those who are initiating these assaults. Despite his protests about using these trash tactics, apparently McCain can't even control his own running mate. She apparently is either too stupid to take his lead or more likely a wacko who is an extremist in her own right. As a minimum she has no compunction about lying about either her own background and her credentials or those of her opponents. This alone is enough to disqualify her as a potential "Commander in Chief" even if she were otherwise qualified, which she is most certainly not.

We have seen this movie before. W and his cohorts led by Carl Rove employed similar tactics against none other than John McCain himself in the 2000 election. They alleged that he had fathered a black child out of wedlock when in fact McCain and his wife had adopted a child from India. How dare he turns around and now uses the same tactics against his opponent while trying to convince us that he is a man of honor, integrity, good judgement. No sir, this is a gross lack of judgment and in my view, he has disqualified himself from being the next president. We don't need another president like W who has sanctioned breaking the law, misleading the public, and allowing special interests to rip off the taxpayer. Let's think about America First on November 4th.

The Tidal Surge is Up

As predicted in my post yesterday, the political CAT 5 ***t Storm is upon us and the surf's up. The charges of Obama hanging out with terrorists are all over the airwaves today. First sparked by Palin over the weekend disorting a NY Times article, all the Republican talking heads got their own memo today, and were out and about spreading the word. They were supported by right wing commercials raising Obama's association with William Ayers, Tony Rezko, and Rev Wright. Meanwhile the stock market as measured by the Dow was down another 800 points before settling back to be down only 367 points by the end of the day. While the financial world is spinning out of control, all the Republicans want to do is launch personal attacks against Obama. After being attacked, the Democrats raised McCain's involvement with the Keating Five, the group of five lawmakers who were reprimanded for interfering with regulators who were investigating Charles Keating, an Arizona developer and CEO of the failed Lincoln S&L. The Republicans were outraged that this would be brought up, but they opened the door for the ***t to blow in. Unfortunately, we can only expect more of this ***t between now and the election.

All the misdirection by the Republicans can not change the facts:
>Republicans were the primary proponents of degregulation that is the root cause of the current financial crisis.
>It was a Republican administration the launched two unnecessary wars that continue to cost us over $10 Billion per month and additional killed and wounded.
>It was a Republican administration that recklessly reduced taxes for the wealthy and loaded up the Treasury with more debt than all other presidents combined to over $10 Trillion.
>It was Republicans who have brought us policies that have destroyed our reputation around the world and trampled on the Constitution here at home: torture, Guantanamo Bay, Abu Graib, illegal wire taps, improperly firing US Attorneys, domestic surveillance, etc.

For eight years the Republican administration has done nothing to solve the health care crisis, energy crisis, immigration, rebuilding after Katrina, or any other of the major problems facing the nation. If Americans now let the Republican zealots distract them from the facts to focus on ***T then we deserve what we get.

Brace yourself for a CAT5 Political *#&t Storm

Here it comes. The presidential campaign is about to make landfall. After picking up some hot air in the last week as the Congress dealt with the financial rescue, the fully fury of the spin machines will be released on television, radio and the press between now an the election. The current polls show Barack Obama trending upwards in many of the so called "swing states" and even some traditional Republican "red" states while John McCain is struggling in almost all of these same states. That puts the Republicans in a position where they need to have a game changer to blunt the trend and dial the needle back in their favor. They are the experts in the personal attack and my guess is that either at the debate or shortly thereafter that's what they will do.

You can already hear it in on the stump with Sarah Palin referencing the recent NY Times front page article about 1960's radical bomber, William Ayers, and a link to Barack Obama. Interesting how Sarah Palin now reads the newspaper when she couldn't tell Katie Couric last week about anything she reads. It reminds me of Dick Cheney going on the Sunday talk shows referencing NY Times articles about the "mushroom clouds" after his office leaked the info to the NY Times reporter. The fact is that when William Ayers was planning to bomb the Pentagon and the Capitol, Barack Obama was only eight years old. This article concludes that the Senator has only cross paths a few times with Ayers and that there is no relationship. Unfortunately the Times did not put that in their headline and you had to read the whole article most of which was continued on page A14. The CNN "truth squad" also says Palin's claim is false. Regardless of the truth of the charge, this will not stop the McCain team from using this and other similar charges to personally attack Obama. "Joe Sixpack" doesn't read the Times and even if he did, wouldn't likely turn to page A14 to get the whole story. He is more likely to listen to the "shout out" from Sarah.

I am keeping my fingers crossed however about the ultimate "October" surprise that might be orchestrated so that McCain can come to the rescue. I fervently hope that it will not happen, but do not put it past either the Bush administration or their allies to tacitly give Isreal the green light to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities. Both the neocons and the Israelis know that they will not get away with this if Obama is elected, and so with their window of opportunity closing, they might view this as the time to strike. Such a unwarranted attack would have far ranging implications, not the least of which would shift attention away from the economy to an international crisis benefiting McCain. I certainly hope that this would not happen, since it is not in anyone's interest including the US, Israel, or the Middle East region as a whole. However, the prospect of loosing power is frightening to the Republican operatives who have enjoyed insider dealing and self-serving politics for a long time. I don't put this beyond their reach, and the neocons around McCain would actually think they are doing something good for both America and Israel at the same time. If even a faint rumor about this emerges, all Americans should instantly get in the streets, light up the Congressional switch boards, and shout loud and clear that we will not tolerate political brinkmanship in the name of patriotism. This will be a time when we all need to shout LOUD AND CLEAR: "AMERICA FIRST"

Win, Loose, or Draw?

If you are reading this blog, I suspect you were interested enough in politics to watch the VP debate last night between Governor Sarah Palin and Senator Joe Biden. After the debate, the political spin machines went to work to proclaim a victory for their side. Those viewers who tuned in to see a game changer were disappointed. There were some minor gaffs, but nothing to derail either side. The Republicans had to be very happy about this outcome, given Palin's recent performances in several news interviews that made her a running joke on the late night circuit. She was "folksy" and well rehearsed. As for Biden, he didn't ramble and had good, crip answers. So from the standpoint of moving the needle for the average voters, Joe Sixpack as the Governor irreverently calls them, it seems this was much less dramatic than all the TV hype by the talking heads.

But take a closer look. Although Palin was well rehearsed enough to string a few sentences together, it was also obvious to me that she was really only parroting back prepared scripts that she was coached to say. In fact, she often ignored the question asked by the moderator, Gwen Iffel, and proceeded to say something totally unrelated to the question. Further it was clear that she had certain "buzz words" to get out. You know most of them already: Maverick, lower taxes, jobs, job creation, I met with Henry Kissinger, change is coming, I am an energy expert, Maverick, there you go Joe, White Flag of Surrender, the Surge worked, Maverick, lower taxes,corruption on Wall Street, hockey mom, and need I say Maverick?

So do we really know anything more about her qualifications to be president in case something happened to McCain? Yes and No. We know she can take direction from handlers, but likely doesn't have a deep understanding of the facts or the policies. When asked by the moderator specifically what she would do if she had to assume the presidency, she gave a rather broad brush answer that spoke in vague generalities about change. Contrast her answer with Senator Biden's on the same question: his was crisp, and a well thought out series of policies that left no doubt about what he would actually do if he had to step into the Presidency.

So what do we really need in a VP? The simple answer is someone who would make a great president if needed. Joe passed this test. Sarah did not. She may be folksy, cute, and sassy, but the job is too important to make a decision based on these incidental criteria. We have had eight years with someone at the helm who people wanted to have a beer with, was a cheerleader, and did not have a real command of the issues, but could simply parrot some buzz words: cut and run, conditions on the ground, victory, we do not torture, axis of evil, the fundamentals are strong, mushroom cloud, and the list goes on. What we got was the worst eight years in our history and a failed government that will take years and a lot of money to fix. Let's let Sarah and Todd go back to Alaska and do some moose hunting while John and Cindy sell some more Budweiser beer to Joe Sixpack, so that Barack and Joe can get on with the job of fixing America. We don't have any more time or money to waste.